If you were the president, why in the world wouldn't you be sitting at the head of the table instead of stuffed back into a corner? I notice everyone else had papers and laptops in front of them. He's just sitting back there, like he's ready to dash off on an errand one of them gives him.

The stuff in front of Hillary, the paper, looks like something my 3-year-old finger painted yesterday.

I thought the picture was good. Hillary looked like a human being who was forced by the tasks of leadership to participate in making the horrible but correct decision to take a life. She understood the cost of what was being done. That is not weakness.

If you were the president, why in the world wouldn't you be sitting at the head of the table instead of stuffed back into a corner? I notice everyone else had papers and laptops in front of them. He's just sitting back there, like he's ready to dash off on an errand one of them gives him

You notice that he is still wearing his golf shirt under that jacket that probably someone threw on him at the last minute.

Other people have remarked at his body posture and that he looks like the 'smallest person in the room'.

If I were in the President's Press/Publicity office I would never allow a photo like that to be released.

Seriously, why is the President stuffed into the corner at such an important and historic moment.

I agree with many others here; Hillary's expression was the most interesting, and most human, of all the people there. It's probably the first time I've actually seen her look genuine. Why, oh why, can't they just SHUT UP about it?

And it's my contention that they're NOT watching Leon Panetta on the screen. They're watching the live feed. As distasteful as Panetta might be, those expressions are not "Leon Panetta" expressions.

As I posted in a thread last night, the EXIF data embedded in the picture indicates it was taken on May 1, 2011 at 4:05:04 PM EST. I'd love to know when that was in the operation timeline.

Well, it was definitely a gesture of "I'm not going to make a noise, whatever shocking thing happens", so it's possssssible that she was worried about coughing. Not likely, though.

The real nastiness here was that a female politician was put on camera looking "girly". Personally, my feeling would be that Hillary could gasp and look horrified and still order bad stuff to happen to anyone in the world as much as she felt like, but some people think that covering your mouth makes you look weak.

Shrug. It's Obama that looks pitiful in that picture. If he thinks he should try to spike Hillary's election chances by making himself look powerless, fine.

"Well the next photo in that White House flickr feed shows Leon Panetta in the room with them and the time in Tripoli-"

madawaskan, the EXIF data for the picture which shows Panetta in the room with them indicates that it was taken May 1, 2011 at 8:03:36 PM EST, 4 hours after the famous photo we've been discussing. Panetta came over from Langley after they iced Bin Laden.

Since Althouse is into hidden meaning in photographs, maybe someone could point out the hidden message in the clock on the wall in the other situation room photo.Number 0475 in the link below. The one with with "littlehead" Obama.

That look on Hillary's face animates the scene. That's the only expression that doesn't indicate everyone's watching a forty yard field goal kick. Now we learn that the expression owes more to pollen than to unbearable tension. Downer.....Kind of a passive aggressive comment. This is Obama's great moment, and she undercuts it. Every historian who wishes to illustrate the drama with this picture will have to include her allergy remark.